Harnessing Patient Life Stories to Engage Medical Trainees in Strengthening Veteran-Provider Relationships.

Introduction: Medical trainees do not have many opportunities to develop communication skills with patients. We established the voluntary "My Life, My Story" (MLMS) program at the Clement J. Zablocki VAMC in Milwaukee, WI, to determine if this pilot narrative medicine program enhanced trainee interpersonal skills and improved patient-centered care. Methods: Trainees at the Medical College of Wisconsin conducted in-person or virtual interviews of Veterans receiving care at the Milwaukee VAMC about their meaningful life experiences. Post-interview, trainees wrote a short first-person narrative in the Veteran's voice, which, after the Veteran's approval, was added to the electronic medical record and made available to the patient's care team. Trainees, Veterans, and health professionals completed post-interview surveys, from which we conducted descriptive statistics and qualitatively analyzed the text-based feedback. Results: Between 2020 and 2021, 24 medical trainees participated in our pilot implementation of the MLMS program, conducting a total of 32 interviews. All trainees reported a meaningful personal impact and found the pilot to be "valuable" and "rewarding." Both trainees and health professionals believed that the MLMS program improved "rapport building" with Veterans. Nearly all Veterans (n = 25, 93%) believed that their medical care team would be able to provide better care after reading their life story. Conclusions: Narrative medicine initiatives like the MLMS program may enable value-added education for trainees. Future research will allow us to better understand and maximize specific educational gains, while further enhancing patient care. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40670-023-01854-4.

The VA Storybook Program: Humanizing Care With Nurse Stories.

The Veterans Affairs (VA) Storybook Program was developed to enhance nurse-patient relationships and satisfaction with care. Personal stories about nurses were distributed to patients on a medical/surgical unit. Quantitative and qualitative evaluation data were collected from patients and nurses to capture patients' descriptions of nurses and perceptions of program value. Results show patients describe nurses differently after reading the storybook. Patients were highly satisfied with the program, and interviews suggest the stories fostered connection and developed an atmosphere of trust. Story programs may be an effective, structured approach to enhancing nurse-patient relationships.

The My Life, My Story Program: Sustained Impact of Veterans' Personal Narratives on Healthcare Providers 5 Years After Implementation.

Patient-centered care promotes positive patient, staff, and organizational outcomes. Communication is one critical element of patient-centered care. Establishing a patient-provider relationship in which a patient feels comfortable sharing their goals, preferences, and values is important to support patient-centered care and positive health outcomes. The My Life, My Story (MLMS) program was developed in 2013 to elicit and share Veterans' life stories with their healthcare providers. Life stories become part of the Veteran's chart so providers can access, read, and utilize as appropriate. To evaluate the program's sustained value and impact 5 years after implementation, healthcare staff were recruited to complete a short survey with closed and open-ended items. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the quantitative survey responses and thematic analysis was used to analyze qualitative responses. Approximately 94% of staff indicated they had read MLMS notes and over 86% agreed or strongly agreed that reading the notes was a good use of their clinical time and helped them provide better treatment or care. Staff also described making more personalized decisions about the plan of treatment or care delivery after knowing the Veteran better from their story. Our findings suggest the MLMS program has been well sustained over time, and the use of patient stories in healthcare may be a valuable, practical, and sustainable tool to support the delivery of patient-centered care.

Using Life Stories to Connect Veterans and Providers.

The My Life, My Story patient-centered program uses veterans' personal narratives by veterans to create a strong connection between patients and providers.